Volunteering 9/26/11

This past Saturday we had the opportunity to volunteer for the Big Scoop Ice Cream Festival. I love volunteering my time; I always have. I remember in middle school and High School thinking that I was going to join Outreach International and make a difference in the world. Although I did not do that I have been involved in a number of philanthropy events. So much so that I was voted as the philanthropy chair in my sorority. That's when I found out that being a philanthropy chair and being an active volunteer are NOT the same. Maybe in the future I may try out that role again, but for now I will just be that volunteer that the leaders love to have.

Neill does not share my love for volunteering, but because he loves me, wants to spend time with me, and wants me happy, he has put in his share of volunteer hours. I think it was our Sophomore year in college that we joined Habitat for Humanity and helped start two houses. Thinking about it now I don't know why we weren't really there for the last part of it. We have driven by the finished houses and they look great. Knowing that my then boyfriend was willing to wake up early and go do manual labor for someone else was definitely a sign of husband material.
Why do I enjoy volunteering? What do I get? I was actually asked that from a man while walking back to our car on Saturday. I don't think he was even close to comprehending why anyone would want to volunteer. Yes you often get free stuff like a cool volunteer t-shirt which I get a lot of joy from. This Saturday we also got a box of Krispy Kreme donuts, a bunch of bananas, a gallon of ice cream, and chocolate syrup. But it's not about the stuff--really. I felt better about giving away some of the bananas and the donuts to a homeless guy on our way home than getting them. That is what volunteering is about: giving of yourself to make others smile. It's a great way to meet wonderful caring people. It really just impossible to put into words. If you are thinking I am crazy find a way to volunteer, put a smile on your face, and go see what it is all about.

A trip downtown 9/26/11

I love any reason to take a trip downtown. So last Thursday after we found a restaurant that serves Halal food we decided to go downtown. Before I get to the downtown part, I must say if you are looking for Halal food in Memphis, Casablanca over by Mendenhall was excellent. Towards the end of dinner when we realized that Assad was going to be staying another night, I thought it would be a good idea for us to show him downtown. Allison and I sang with Marc Cohn Walking in Memphis, walking with my feet 10 feet off of Beale as we drove downtown to show Assad downtown Main St and of course Beale St.

Since Neill works downtown we just parked in the parking garage that he has a parking pass for by his office and enjoyed our walk down Main St. I just love walking down Main St. looking at all the cool old buildings and watching people. As we got closer to Beale St we were also getting close to the Orpheum. I got so excited about our up coming Broadway play MEMPHIS which is making its off Broadway debut here (and we have tickets!) that I was ranting on and forgot to say that we had made it to Beale St. As we cross the far West end of Beale St (one block away from all the lights) Allison asked "what is all that?" "Oh, this is Beale St." is all I could reply.

Well we aren't much for partying and especially with Assad, so we walked to the other end of the Beale St strip looked around and listened to music. Allison refused to let Assad or anyone have a deep fried Twinkie (which by the way is really good). On our way back we took the trolley.

Allison and Assad on the trolley

Neill and I on the trolley

1 comments:

Vi said...

Now you have to talk about how awesome the dining room looks! Yay!

September 27, 2011 9:53 AM

Our End of Summer Trips 8/31/11

With school starting back this week I have decided to tell you how much fun we have been having at the end of this summer. It was a little hectic going every weekend, driving (well riding for me) over a dozen hours each weekend and taking the dogs (or leaving them with the indentured servant, thanks Allison!). Neill and I both agree that even though we may be tired we feel like the weekend is longer and more enjoyable when it is full of activities as compared to those weekends where we veg out on the couch and watch all of True Blood or Dexter (yes, we have done that).

Hi Kristin!

Our first trip (first weekend in Aug) was to one of our college friend's son's first birthday party. They live in south Louisiana, so we made a trip to Neill's parents in north Louisiana on Friday after work then got up on Sat and drove the rest of the way. We were lucky enough to spend the day with our friends that we rarely get to see. Kristin told me that she had been blogging at Our Growing Garden and after reading all of her's I decided to create my own so if you like mine you should check her's out (or if you don't like mine and want something else to read check her's out). We were so lucky that Neill's parents were able to keep the dogs while we got to hang out with our friends.

Hiking picture

We are also so lucky that my aunt and uncle have a house on the Beaver Lake in Arkansas. They love sharing their large lake house with family and friends, so the second weekend in Aug. we loaded up the car (2 kayaks on top, 2 dogs, Neill, myself, Allison and her art supplies) and headed out. This was the first weekend for me to try out my new kayak and I love it! Audi however still prefers Neill's kayak--yes, our dog rides on the kayak (on the towel). We were hoping that Drizzt (who has webbed toes too) would start loving the water. After Neill pushed him off the boat dock and he some how made a B-line to shore we decided water wasn't for him. Audi on the other hand LOVES, absolutely LOVES the water; as my uncle said "that's the most swimmingest dog I've ever seen." With Audi somewhat tired from swimming, we brought Drizzt hiking along a cliff and up a small mountain. After being nervous about the cliff's edge I realized Drizzt LOVES this. He was great, not pulling you when you needed to watch your step and would pull when you wanted help up the mountain. It was an awesome weekend, and I can't wait for us to go back.

The third weekend we left the dogs with our indentured servant while we went to dauphin island, AL. Neill's family has been going there for years and we were able to get off Mon and have 3 days there. We brought our sea kayaks and finally got to try them on the open sea. It was amazing. The water was perfect for sea kayaking (not so great for boogie board/body surfing). On Monday morning we got out there early enough to be just feet from dolphins. It was magical. Sorry we didn't bring our phone/cameras out on the water so there are no pictures of the 50+ dolphins that we saw.

All I can say I love my life and love the wonderful people in my life! Now I have to go wash clothes for our trip this labor day weekend to see our niece and nephew.

Meet and greet

Welcome to our personal side. Let me introduce the main characters of my blog posts:

Neill and Melissa

Hi! My name is Melissa and I am currently a graduate student studying Industrial/ Organizational Psychology (work psychology). I work as a researcher at the Navy. I love working on our house and doing craft projects.

Behind me there is my wonderful husband, Neill. We have been together since 2003 and married since 2008. He is an IT guy for the US Dist. Courts. He is super smart (I have actually given him an IQ test), but sometimes he does some of the silliest things. You will probably hear about his antics.

We are both from Louisiana, but moved to Tennessee for me to go to school.

Audi

Here is Audi, our first dog. He was left on the side of the road with his sister when they were only about 2 weeks old. A wonderful adoption group in Texas cared for them, and when he was 7 weeks old, we adopted him. With a lot of love he his has grown up, learned a number of tricks, and of course has some problems. We will save those for later.

Drizzt

When Audi was getting calmer and learning to behave, we started to look for a Boston Terrier to adopt and found Drizzt. Not exactly a Boston, but we fell in love. We knew if we didn't adopt him he would probably be euthanized, and he was so calm and quiet. We later found out that he freezes in unknown circumstances, and is a BALL of ENERGY when he is comfortable. His name was Rocco, but didn't respond to that, so I let Neill pick out a new name. He picked Drizzt based on a book where the character Drizzt was a part of a race that was hated and often evil, but Drizzt is a good guy, so it fit with him being an American Pit Bull Terrier. He really knew nothing, and we have taught him a lot, even "roll over" and "dead".

Our newest addition is our indentured servant.

That is my cousin, Allison, also from Louisiana. She was working at Lowes and getting very little art work done. So we offered to let her live in our guest room and work in our back porch area in exchange for a small amount of rent and her controlling our food budget. So she moved in at the beginning of the month and is basically a modern day indentured servant.